There are many “must-have” traditional dishes for Chinese New Year. Good fortune cake (fa gao 發糕) is one of them. They are sweet little steamed cupcakes. They HAVE to have the split top to symbolise good fortune (the word “rise” is a pun with good fortune).

Chinese New Year good fortune cakes, flavoured with green tea and longan, decorated with cranberries.

Traditionally, they are made with rice flour (not the sticky/glutinous type). They tend to go hard very quickly, so these days many people are making them with wheat flour. I make them with mostly wheat flour, but still add some rice flour to give it its traditional characteristic “gooeyness”. You can completely use wheat flour if you don’t think you’ll like the addition of rice flour.